As a researcher, Dr. Candice Lanius is less interested in why people are so afraid of speaking in public and more focused on how cutting-edge technology can be used to help them improve in spite of their fear. "Public speaking anxiety becomes a problem when the response to the stimulus spirals and the person speaking can’t calm down and focus on what they’re doing," says Dr. Lanius, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Arts at UAH. "I want to understand what’s causing them to have a stressful response, so that we can train them to become better speakers."